These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, with chopped walnuts, or even chocolate chips. You need 3 large ripe bananas and a few basic kitchen ingredients to get started.
Banana bread is wonderful, but muffins are quicker, more convenient, easily portable, and taste just as good. I’ve been searching for the perfect EASY banana muffin recipe since my daughter began eating solids. We always have bananas in the house which means we eventually have spotty bananas ready for baking!
These quick and easy banana muffins bake in 30 minutes, so if you need to be in and out of the kitchen FAST (um, don’t we all?), this recipe is your savior.
Banana Muffin Ingredients—Each Is Important!
This banana muffin recipe requires a handful of basics like flour, sugar, and milk. That’s what I love about baking—it’s the same base ingredients for basically everything.
- Flour: I tested the recipe with both all-purpose flour and whole wheat flour and LOVED both variations. See recipe Note below.
- Melted Butter: We’ll use melted butter as the fat, though melted coconut oil works too. I love using melted butter in baked goods, and though I was afraid these banana muffins would taste too dense without creaming softened butter (which incorporates air), that’s not the case at all.
- Bananas, vanilla, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg: The flavor team.
- Egg: 1 egg gives the muffins structure.
- Milk: A common ingredient in some muffin recipes including pumpkin muffins, milk provides necessary moisture. Dry muffins… the worst.
- Sugar: Sweetens. When I make these for my daughter, I use half brown sugar and half coconut sugar. You can use all brown sugar, all coconut sugar, or a mixture of the two. Keep in mind that coconut sugar isn’t quite as sweet as brown sugar, so the flavor will change. See my recipe Note. 🙂
Do these banana muffins taste like banana bread? Yes, totally! But they have a lighter, softer, and more buttery texture. You’ll love it.
How to Make Banana Muffins Moist
There’s a fine line between a moist banana muffin and a dry banana muffin, aka sandpaper in a cupcake wrapper. To make banana muffins moist, make sure you’re using a solid ratio of dry to wet ingredients. I found the muffins to be dry without the addition of liquid, but a couple Tablespoons of milk solved the problem. Use a little fat (butter), brown sugar, and plenty of bananas for lots of moisture and flavor.
How to Mash Bananas
So I started doing this last year and it’s been a total game changer whenever I make banana cake, these breakfast cookies, banana bread, or chocolate banana bread. Just use your mixer to mash bananas! Peel and break them into chunks, place in your mixer, and beat until mashed. Beat the rest of the wet ingredients right into this bowl, then beat in the dry ingredients. So easy.
Can I Use Frozen Bananas?
Yes and I do this often. Thaw the frozen bananas at room temperature. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe below. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking. Try not to mash too much or else you’ll be left with 2 cups of banana-y liquid; some chunks are great.
This banana muffin recipe is perfect if you:
- Have 3 large spotty bananas
- Love banana bread
- Need a quick homemade breakfast, snack, etc.
- Don’t feel like creaming butter and sugar together
- Don’t feel like dirtying 100 pans
And, to turn these into a scrumptious treat, you could dip the tops of the cooled muffins into chocolate ganache and add sprinkles. (Affiliate link: I love these naturally colored sprinkles.) You can also add the streusel topping from these banana chocolate chip streusel muffins.
More Muffin Recipes
These easy banana muffins have been my default for awhile, though I usually switch between these and a couple other muffin recipes previously published. I consider these muffins on the healthier side and they’re each toddler & adult approved. 🙂
- Baby Apple Oat Muffins
- Bran Muffins
- Whole Wheat Banana Nut Muffins (these include oats)
- Blueberry Oatmeal Muffins
- Healthy Apple Muffins & Chocolate Banana Muffins
- Morning Glory Muffins
- Lemon Blueberry Muffins
- Zucchini Muffins
- Peanut Butter Banana Muffins
- Healthy Blueberry Banana Muffins
- Lemon Poppy Seed Muffins
Would love to know if you try any of them!
Print
Quick & Easy Banana Muffins
- Prep Time: 10 minutes
- Cook Time: 20 minutes
- Total Time: 30 minutes
- Yield: 10-12 muffins
- Category: Muffins
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: American
Description
These banana muffins are soft, buttery, and spiced with cinnamon. They’re wonderful plain, but taste fantastic with 1 cup chopped walnuts or chocolate chips. You need 3 ripe bananas and a handful of basic kitchen ingredients.
Ingredients
- 1 and 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour (spooned & leveled)
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 1 and 1/2 cups (345g) mashed bananas (about 4 medium or 3 large ripe bananas)
- 6 Tablespoons (85g) unsalted butter, melted (or melted coconut oil)
- 2/3 cup (135g) packed light or dark brown sugar (or coconut sugar)*
- 1 large egg, at room temperature
- 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
- 2 Tablespoons (30ml) milk*
- optional: 1 cup chopped walnuts, pecans, or chocolate chips
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 425°F (218°C). Spray a 12-count muffin pan with nonstick spray or use cupcake liners.
- Whisk the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg together in a medium bowl. Set aside. In a large bowl or in the bowl of your stand mixer, mash the bananas. On medium speed, beat or whisk in the melted butter, brown sugar, egg, vanilla extract, and milk. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients, then beat or whisk until combined. If adding nuts or chocolate chips, fold them in now. Batter will be thick.
- Spoon the batter into liners, filling them all the way to the top. Bake for 5 minutes at 425°F, then, keeping the muffins in the oven, reduce the oven temperature to 350°F (177°C). Bake for an additional 16–18 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. The total time these muffins take in the oven is about 21–23 minutes, give or take. (For mini muffins, bake 12–14 total minutes at 350°F (177°C).) Allow the muffins to cool for 5 minutes in the muffin pan, then transfer to a wire cooling rack to continue cooling.
- Muffins stay fresh covered at room temperature for a few days or in the refrigerator for up to 1 week.
Notes
- Make Ahead Instructions: For longer storage, freeze muffins for up to 3 months. Thaw overnight in the refrigerator, then bring to room temperature or warm up in the microwave if desired.
- Special Tools (affiliate links): 12-count Muffin Pan | Muffin Liners | Electric Mixer (Handheld or Stand) | Glass Mixing Bowls | Whisk | Cooling Rack
- Why the initial high temperature? The hot burst of air will spring up the top of the muffin quickly, then the inside of the muffin can bake for the remainder of the time. This helps the muffins rise nice and tall.
- Whole Wheat Flour: Feel free to substitute whole wheat flour for all-purpose flour or use a mix of both as long as you use 1 and 1/2 cups total. If using all whole wheat flour, add another Tablespoon (15ml) of milk.
- Frozen Bananas: You can use frozen bananas here. Thaw the frozen bananas. Drain off any excess liquid, mash, then use as instructed in the recipe. See How to Freeze & Thaw Bananas for Baking.
- Sugar: You can use 2/3 cup of packed brown sugar or coconut sugar. Or a mixture of these to yield 2/3 cup. If using 2/3 cup coconut sugar, the muffins won’t be as sweet. I find they taste best with 2/3 cup brown sugar or 1/3 cup of each. 2/3 cup of honey or pure maple syrup works too, though the muffins will taste a little more moist in the centers. I’m unsure about sugar substitutes, but let me know if you try any.
- Milk: Use your favorite variety of dairy or nondairy milk.
- Banana Bread: Here’s my favorite banana bread recipe. 🙂
Reader Comments and Reviews
Very good and easy recipe. Thank you!
Love this recipe and all the substitutes included!
I’ve made these a few times and love them. What if id wanted to top with a streusel? From which recipe could i steal from?
Thank you for all your help. Never had a baking fail using your recipes!
Hi Lauren! I love and recommend the crumb topping from my pumpkin crumb cake muffins. Make sure you gently and slightly press the crumb topping down into the batter so it sticks. So glad you enjoy these!
i’ve made those too! as soon as my bananas ripen more, it’s go time.
also follow up, i am out of liners and i have a silicone muffin pan, do i need to prep it in any way. the label said do not use a spray. thanks for any insight.
Delicious!!!!
I didn’t have nutmeg and vanilla so left them out, and substituted the brown sugar for white sugar. Came out super delicious and they were gone almost as quick as they were made.
I’ve tried lots of banana muffin recipes, usually they come out dense. These are so perfectly fluffy.
Thank you! Definitely adding this to my recipe book.
Amazing recipe!! I used all coconut sugar but added a dollop of Nutrlla and yum!! it’s my favourite banana baking recipe. Thanks!
Great recipe. Easy to convert to plant-based. Turned out fluffy and delicious!
I absolutely loved this recipe. I just wanted to ask one small question: can I use 2 teaspoons of baking powder? (Instead of using one of baking powder and the other one of baking soda).
I love this! I made mini muffins with mini chocolate chips. And I sneaked in a chunk of cream cheese in each muffin before baking. Super good!!
Excellent
I make this recipe before every weekend to have as a grab and go snack!
Hi Sally,
First I’ll say thank you for the recipe, these turned out wonderfully!
I just have a quick question about the rise of the muffins. When I made these last weekend the recipe yielded 15 muffins, but I only had one muffin tray so I had to bake them in two batches (12 in the first batch, and 3 in the second). Both batches came out great, but for some reason the second batch had a significantly larger rise compared to the first batch (about 1/2 – 3/4 of an inch difference). I followed your oven temperature instructions for both batches and the amount of batter was the same between all of the muffins. I’m wondering if you have some intuition as to why my second batch rose more than my first?
Some things that I can think of are:
1. I opened the over door on the first batch a few times to check for doneness, which I did not do for the second batch.
2. The oven temperature for the first batch was slightly cooler because it had to preheat from room temp, whereas the oven had been on for over 30 minutes when the second batch went in.
3. The batter for the second batch sat at room temp for an additional ~30-35 minutes…perhaps the leaveners started to work their magic while the batter was sitting out? My gut is telling me this is the most likely situation.
Anyhow, I am planning to make your blueberry oatmeal muffins this weekend, and I’m thinking of “proofing” the batter for ~30 minutes to see if I can get the nice rise I saw with my second batch of banana muffins. Although, I’m concerned that the oats might soak up too much of the moisture. I’d appreciate your thoughts on this.
Thanks again and happy baking!
-Natalie
Hi Natalie, I would guess it had more to do with the first two reasons than the third. Usually the longer the batter sits out the less rise you get since the leaveners are activated as soon as they are mixed with the wet ingredients. Try to let your oven fully pre-heat before placing the muffins inside and use your oven light to check them instead of opening the door. When you try the blueberry oatmeal muffins I recommend baking the batter right away and not letting it sit for 30 minutes first. I hope you love them!
Hi Sally, thanks for your prompt response and the adivce 🙂
These are the best banana muffins I’ve ever had! I used salted butter, so I omitted the salt, I used half and half instead of milk and I didn’t have any nutmeg in the house, so none of that either. So some small tweaks, but I’m definitely saving this recipe because YUM. And so moist!
Absolutely delicious & remarkably simple. I’ve never been overly impressed with previous attempts at muffins but these are deliciously moist 🙂
I used 1 cup all purpose flour &1/2 cup almond flour plus added 1 cup of mini semi sweet chocolate chips. My kids & hubby loved it!!!
Very quick and easy, uses a lot of bananas in one batch (very useful if you have a lot of overripe ones!), great flavour and wonderful fluffy texture, even if you use 100% whole wheat flour, which I did. I’ll definitely keep this recipe!
These are my my families favorite banana muffin recipe…soo delicious. I use salted butter and therefore omit the salt and give a little shake of ground cloves, otherwise I follow it directly. Thanks for deelish, toddler-requested muffins!
Delicious! Love that the butter is melted. Makes this a super quick recipe to whip up for an unexpected brunch. Thanks!
Hi. Would I need to toast pecans before adding to batter?
Thx
Hi Lauren, Toasting the pecans is not necessary but it does add a lovely flavor!
These banana muffins were absolutely delicious!! I’ve tried so many recipes trying to find one that is THE ONE, and this is it. Most seemed to come out heavy or dry, but not this one. I threw in a handful of white chocolate chips I had left from another recipe & it became more of a nice dessert. Even after I froze them, they thawed out still moist and yummy. Glad I found this!
I love this recipe, its accurate and easy to bake. And this is my first time baking from scratch! its is pretty easy to follow. However, as baking involves a lot of science, and my skill is not there, my muffins turn out to be chewy and dense.
They were really tasty and were very tall, although I didn’t use baking powder because I didn’t have any and they were fine.
I made these last night for our breakfast. I used 1/3 cup Trivia brown sugar blend and stirred in sugar free dark chocolate chips. Hubby loved them! This will be my new go-to recipe for banana muffins!
Tried many banana muffin recipes and this is certainly the best and most moist.
-Don (AKA Banana Muffin Expert)
Great recipe! Just wanted to let you know that I used date puree (with no sugar added) instead of brown sugar ; it is sold in several Canadian supermarkets. It was delicious!!
Another great recipe! Your website is always my first stop when looking for a new recipe and I found another gem. I wanted to use my old bananas for something other than banana bread and found these muffins. I added the pecans as recommended and think this may be new go to recipe for old bananas. However, my husband insists I make your banana cupcakes with cinnamon cream cheese frosting first.
I only got 10 muffins. I’m assuming I probably overmixed even though I did try to watch how timing for that … any ideas what might have gone wrong?
This recipe only makes between 10 and 12 muffins depending on the pan you use and how much batter you place in each one, so you didn’t do anything wrong!
Holy banana muffins! Thank you for sharing, they turned out great.
Hi Sally – I’m a huge fan of your recipes! I want to make these for my youngest’s 1st birthday but want to add a frosting…maybe your cream cheese frosting. How do you think it will pair?
Hi Tina, These would be great with frosting! Enjoy!
Love love this recipe
My school going girl is so happy to take this in her snack box.
I’ve now made this recipe twice and both times it’s turned out excellently. I forgot to put the egg in the second time but it still turned out great.